Wisconsin Election Officials when he is not working or writing. 1721 tells the history of the worst smallpox epidemic to hit boston. It set the stage for scientific advancement including the controversial but effective smallpox inoculation. The pittsburgh gazette calls this book solidly told and the wall street journal called it a deeply researched account. Please join me in welcoming stephen coss. [applause] i am a wisconsin election official. I am not in wisconsin. They are having an election. I had to vote absentee. I would rather be here right now. The line of fire. Stephen exactly. That is a nonpartisan position. It is a fantasy a fancy phrase for poll worker. Register new voters. Firsttime voters, naturalized citizens. I like it a lot. Thank you very much for that introduction. Thanks to harvard bookstore. This is my first time here. But i have heard about this store. Everybody has. It smells like a bookstore should smell and looks like a bookstore should look. I am happy and proud to be one of its guests. Tv. To book i have watched it many times. It is a real pleasure to be featured on it. And of course last but no means least thank you to all of you for coming. This is my fourth live event. The first was in madison, wisconsin where i reside and i got all my friends to go and some of my wifes friends as well. Then we went to chicago. I got all of my inlaws to go. Judy has a big family. She is one of seven or eight. You think i should know by now. Family to go. Her we had people. Sunday i did a event at rj julia bookstore in madison, connecticut. Im from connecticut originally so i had all the mild friends going back to high school, people i have not seen in a century who i got to go there. Tonight i dont think i know any of you. That is very flattering. Thank you for coming. I appreciate it. When my sister learned i would be presenting a book, promoting my book, she gave me advice. She said i suggest letting people know it is your first appearance and use it every time you speak. This islike to announce my first appearance, but like i said it is my fourth appearance, but my first in the general area of the town where my book takes place. That is very cool. It is also my first appearance. T this store, on book tv this is a wonderful thing for me area i thought what i would do tonight is start with a short reading, about eight minutes, from the introduction of the book so that if you have not read the book you will get an idea of the scope of the story. There are three plot lines i tread to i try to thread together. I dont have time for all of them but i would leave read through the beginning, then i will stop reading and talk about one of the characters from the book, someone who Everybody Knows but generally doesnt associate with boston. And then if i dont digress too much we should have plenty of time for discussion. So i will start with a short reading. This is from the introduction to the fever of 1721. 1721 might be the most important anonymous year in the evolution of modern medicine and american liberty. During the worst smallpox epidemic in bostons history, a lone physician conducted an experiment that saved hundreds of lives, launched a new medical is a plan and helped pave the way for the eradication of the worlds most devastating disease. Employed, known timeoculation, would over be modified and extended to fight other fatal diseases, preventing the deaths of untold millions of persons. In 1721 it was considered barbaric and tantamount to attempted murder. Town officials, the medical establishment and rankandfile bostonians opposed it. Some of those opponents seemed willing to do anything to stop it. Smallpox came to boston for the first time in nearly two decades. It arrived on the hms seahorse, a british warship. By the time the epidemic burned itself out a year later, half of the 11,000 inhabitants had been infected. Among those who escaped death were 300 men, women and children who had undergone inoculation. The procedure again with an incision in the skin of the healthy person. It was planted with viscous fluid from pustules of someone who had broken out in smallpox. The idea was to produce a mild and easily tolerated case of the disease and confirm immunity to future infection. 1721 inoculation had never been attempted in america. The proposal to try it in boston ,ame from a puritan minister Cotton Mather. A theological conservative and master of fire and brimstone was one of the controversial figures of boston. His moment in the salem witch hysteria tickets before. He had become in the years since salem and inherent of enlightenment science and enthusiastic monitor of the latest and most exotic medical developments in europe and beyond. The towns most esteemed physicians dismissed mathers proposal out of hand but one dr. Accepted the challenge. In 1721 boylston was 42 years old and accepted as a physician and apothecary shop owner. He had achieved a measure of fame for his track record with surgeries but was relegated to the second tier of medical practitioners because he lacked the educational pedigrees of his colleagues. Without boylstons daring, James Franklin would never have watched the new england current. The struggling boston printer had been looking for an opportunity to start a newspaper modeled on the best london publications. It would be witty, provocative and ambitious. Antithesis of the generally dull and perfunctory boston newspapers already in circulation. In 1721 he leveraged the publics hunger for opinions about inoculation to put his plan into action. If his current had done nothing more than reprint excerpts of essays, along with the topical spectator commentaries of Joseph Addison and richard steele, it would have made a noteworthy contribution to american journalism and american independence. But it went further. Sidebyside with the essays of the great medical and social thinkers of the european enlightenment, james published distinctly american essays and letters penned by himself and others breathe a criticized and satirized the religious and political establishments of oneill massachusetts with a boldness that scandalized their fathers generation. The onion, the daily show and colbert rp of its day. The American Social and political satire became with this began with this newspaper, everything from mark twain to south park is descended from it. At the same time he was inventing social and political commentary, James Franklin was helping invent the man generally regarded as the first american. Two years after being pulled from school, 12yearold Benjamin Franklin had been indentured as his brothers apprentice. For the better part of the next three years as he learned the trade that would make an wealthy, he had embarked on his , hised selfeducation inspiration and many texts came from his brothers Printing House which contained a large and Diverse Library of books and periodicals and served as a Meeting Place for James Franklins clever and loquacious friends. Their conversations about books and pamphlets and debates about politics, religion and social issues of the day fired young benjamins mind and imagination and he saw his destiny unfolds before him. In 1721 the 15yearold was given a front row seat to the inoculation controversy. What he learned from that debate and his involvement in the newspaper changed his life and helped define him as an author, publisher, political philosopher , experimenter and diplomat. Everything Benjamin Franklin ever really needed to know, he learned in 1721. By early 1722 he was ready to take the public stage. Disguised as a country widow. It is fitting the Political Movement that would make him famous as a American Patriot was comingofage at the same time he was very the man behind the first same time he was. Junior. Ook the son of one of the colonys wealthiest men and most beloved politicians, he had inherited his fathers fortune, talent for politics and bitter and abiding was a man towards england for its 1684 cancellation of the original massachusetts charter which had given the colony a remarkable degree of autonomy. After being elected to the massachusetts house of representatives for the first time, he had put all three of those inheritances to work opposing and obstructing the royal government. Before three years had elapsed, the pug nations, hard drinking cook had built americas First Political machine and the bane of english officials, one of whom accused him of poisoning the mind of countrymen with republican notions to assert the independency of new england. Smallpox epidemic leap forward in medical science. It served as a catalyst for the invention of american journalism, coming of age of Benjamin Franklin and beginning of american independence itself. This book is about that epidemic. It is a story of five remarkable men and other courage, daring and desperation in a time of crisis defined their destinies and hours. Thank you. Destinies defined o. Urs. Thank you. I will concentrate on the most famous of the characters, someone who, though associated with philadelphia, was and remained very much a boston boy. Im talking of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin would leave boston when he was 17 years old and never live in the town again. At times for the rest of his life he would sometimes say some rather tough things about his hometown. Famously he wrote to lafayette who had named his daughter in honor of the american republic, that he hoped a frenchman the frenchman to be blessed with 12 afterhildren to have each the colonies, but worried for the soul of anyone named after massachusetts which he felt was too harsh even for boys. He never did return to boston permanently but made four extended visits to the town and would have made a fifth except for the british occupation. It was never far from his thoughts. Wherever he went, philadelphia, england, france, he kept tabs on boston. Famously his friend Joseph Priestley said when franklin read about the military occupation of boston and the closing of the port, there were tears on his cheeks. In 1784 when he was in france, he wrote a letter confessing not only that he longed to see boston, but he had hoped to be buried in boston. He did not return to boston and was not buried in boston. He did remember the town in his will. He bequeathed the same amount of money to boston as he did to philadelphia. In all of these ways franklin acknowledged how much boston meant to him. Those gestures i think only begin to reflect how profoundly important the town was to his development as a writer, philosopher and person. It is my contention in this book that the five years Benjamin Franklin spent with his brother james as apprentice, and especially the year 1721, when he helped james launch the new england current and had a front row seat for the inoculation currency were the most formative of his life. I say everything he ever really needed to know, he learned in 1721. The book elaborates on why i make that claim. I want to talk about what happened before that. Franklin was a long and consequential life and did so many things we dont know that much about the earliest part of his life. There are a great many biographies. I have read most of them. Because he had such a long life and did so many things, the first 15, 20 years usually get a few pages. I think they deserve more. I want to talk about how the Franklin Brothers got together in the first place, they struggled to make a go of it and almost did not, and how that influenced what would happen in 1721 and Benjamin Franklins entire life. James and benjamin were the fourth and eighth children of their parents. The father had been married once, got seven children from the first marriage for with the other wife, marriage. With the otherwise he had 10 children. Other wife he had 10 children. Religious,was very and he was very much devout as a bentan he hoped to tithe to the church and set him up to be a minister. If you wanted to be a congregational minister of any standing, you went to boston latin as a prep school and then Harvard College which many of you know started out as a Training Ground for congregational preachers in new england. Franklingh josiah didnt have a lot of money, he was a tallow chanter which made he means he made soap and candles. Todecided that he was going somehow or other going to send his son to harvard, boston latin and make him a minister. Benjamin franklin started at austin latin as his father wished and he actually did quite well, scholastically. It became clear quickly he lacked the piety and the calling to be a minister. There is a famous story, many of you have heard about, one winter, one fall they were putting up provisions for the winter and they were salting meat. Ben turned to his father and suggested they ought to pray over the barrel once and save themselves praying every time they sat down to eat. That is a typical ben franklin kind of logical piece of logic. But it was great for everything but not for someone who was going to be a preacher obviously. So when josiah realized his son did not have the right stuff for the ministry he saw no reason to incur a huge expense of sending him to school. He pulled him from school and put him to work in the tallow shop making soap and candles. This was hot, physical work and smelly work because they would boil down animal fats. Ben franklin, even at 10 years old, a strapping, strong kid who did a lot of swimming, he hated the work. He was obviously a prodigy. He needed something more challenging. He told his father he wanted to go to sea, see the world. Because itwas upset was Common Knowledge among everyone that being a sailor was a dangerous occupation. But Josiah Franklin had already lost a son who was a sailor. Josiah junior had left home on tot his wishes, hired a ship and lost at sea probably from a storm or pirates. They never knew. Josiah was determined Benjamin Franklin would not suffer that fate. He took his son around town, took the day off of work. He took him all around trying to find alternate occupation and for a variety of reasons it did not work out. There they are back in the tallow shop. Benjamin is still miserable. Josiah is worried he will run off to sea. Returns fromn england. He was 20 years old and he had been in england for a number of years apprenticing as a printer. Now he was back in boston, good at his trade, had seen what they were doing in england and how exciting it was, how boring it was in boston and said i need to turn this town on its ear. Josiah said no way. He needed money, and josiah would have had to borrow the money to give it to james. He said no way because of a couple of things. He thought james ought to cool his jets and serve his time and get to know the business a little better. Mainly it was because he thought along with everybody else in boston there were enough printers in the town and the town could not support another printer and this venture would fail. But james kept pushing. He soon josiah found himself pretty soon josiah found himself with james taking and benjamin wanting anything but to be in the tallow shop. He said i will get you the money provided you take your brother as your apprentice. It sounds like a good deal but the boys were practically strangers because James Franklin had been away learning to become a printer almost all of Ben Franklins life. They did not know each other very well. They were different people. But it was the best deal either of them could get. In 1718, august 1718, they went into business in a little shop on what was called queen street across from the town prison which would loom large in their futures. Youhe way, maybe all of know this but if you start at the statehouse and walk up 150 yards and look at the black on the building to your right, you will see the spot where Benjamin Franklin and james frequent had their Printing House for the house is gone, but the plaque marks the spot. Almost from the first day ben franklin started working from for his brother, his life changed. After two years doing drudgery, he now was in his element. He found himself surrounded by books and pamphlets and printed materials. He was working with words and setting type and doing rings that were natural for him. There was more to it and being surrounded by books. James franklin his brother was no slouch. Not as a reader or writer or thinker. Even more important he was a magnet for other young men like himself, young men in boston who were tired of the same old, same old, the extreme religious oppression i guess would be the way to say it, restrictions. Every day or nearly every day they would drop by the franklin renting house and they james and those guys would talk politics, philosophy and the big issues of the day. Benjamin franklin could not participate but he was soaking it all in. These were his teachers. These were his boston lads, his harvard teachers he did not get. If you have read the autobiography, you know that franklin talks about conducting his selfeducation, how he taught himself remedial math and to be a better writer, better debater. He doesnt say, but i think he should have, that it was working for james, being in that particular Printing House and that exciting environment with books and men expressing ideas he had never would never heard before that inspired him to start that amazing journey. He wanted to be like them. James in after joining the Printing House ben franklin had been saved. His spirit i think had nearly been broken. That his father took him looking for another job and was willing to let him out of the tallow shop reflects how bad Benjamin Franklin felt at that point. It is not too much to say he was depressed. Hishe was reborn and in element. But business wise, not so much. Business wise, things were not so good. Josiah franklin was right. Boston did not need another printer. , a monthatters worse after they opened their printing shop, samuel kneeland, who